Last night we made the 20 minute drive out to Chino with a group of neighbors to look at Christmas lights. The neighborhood we went to had a decent amount but not nearly as many as we have seen in the past. We had about 15 kids and 10 adults so it was a good time. After that we drove another 10 minutes to a whole block that had lights that flashed and moved to music that we could tune in on our car radios. That was the highlight of the evening.

My son is a member of Cub Scout Pack 2017 and every year we sell popcorn as our primary fundraiser for Pack events. We sold a lot of popcorn this year. Part of selling popcorn was collecting Military Donations. We delivered those donations to March ARB on December 1st. After the popcorn delivery was finished we got the chance to board one of their refueling aircraft and all the kids got to learn about how it refuels other planes while in the air. It was a great experience for all involved.

Once again I headed straight to the one maze that I have not made it into yet, Trick or Treat, and they had a two hour wait listed on the sign so I detoured back over to the zombie killing maze. I got stuck behind a really slow person and only shot 6 zombies this time. I hit up a couple more mazes and then did back to back rides on Montezooma’s Revenge. That was really fun riding it in the dark. I also rode Voyage to the Iron Reef for the first time. That ride was a lot more fun than I expected. You wear 3-D glasses and the ocean life really pops out. Did I mention this ride has guns? You get to shoot all the 3-D ocean life! I’m definitely taking the family on this one the next time that we come. Upon exiting this ride I found the Scary Farm Art Exhibit. They had some really cool paintings and wooden art pieces there. One of the Cub Scout dads bought the Ouija board.

After those rides and I then watched the second to last showing of The Hanging. It always amazes me just how closely they follow their script. There were a couple of minor changes but it was pretty much the exact same show that I saw on my first night.

I went on a couple more mazes and then checked the first maze and it still had an hour wait so I headed home around 11:00 pm. It was a full night and I had a good time. I’m not going to make it next week due to a Cub Scout campout the next day but you can bet that I will be there the week after!

As I mentioned last week, my wife surprised me with a season pass for Knott’s Scary Farm so I went again this Thursday. I had originally planned to go on Tuesday but it turns out that they are only open Thursday through Sunday.

I was able to park in the rear parking lot for no charge with my annual parking pass and I was able to get in with my season pass. My only cost for the night was $10 for dinner at a local rice bowl place.

I went right in at 7:30 pm and headed straight to the first of 2 mazes that I missed last week. It was a 120 min wait so I bee-lined to the zombie killing maze and made it in after a 30 minute wait. There were a group of ladies in front of me who have been coming here for years and especially liked killing zombies. 2 of them were twins who always come on their birthday. I was able to join their group and we all had a good time shooting zombies.

I hit up a couple more mazes and then went back and checked on the first maze and the line was still too long. By this point is was 10:00 pm so I decided to head home because I had to go to work in the morning. I plan on returning next Thursday for a longer night as I have the next day off for a Boy Scout camping trip.

For the past 22 years my buddy Dave and I have been going to Knott’s Scary Farm. It is the Halloween scary night time version of Knott’s Berry Farm. We normally go on the last Thursday of September to capitalize on the smaller amount of people in the park. This year one of his friends couldn’t make it on the last Thursday so we went the Thursday before not knowing that it was opening night. They live about an hour and half from the park and I work about 15 minutes away. We like to meet at a local restaurant named Portillos and then drive the 5 minutes to the park from there.

The park surprised us and raised the rates on the parking closest to the event from $20 to $35. I have an annual pass this year for the park and for the Scary Farm event. I also paid for the annual parking pass but still had to pay an additional $14 to park with my friends. Being opening night it was much more crowded than expected.

One of the main attractions of the Scary Farm event is their Halloween themed mazes. They usually have nine or ten mazes and Dave likes to visit them in order starting with number one. The six of us got in line for the 1st maze and barely made it through one twist of the visible six cut backs in 30 minutes so we decided to skip ahead to number nine and backtrack. By midnight we were able to go through all of them except for number one and we also watched their live show called The Hanging. It is an irreverent look back on all the pop culture events of the last year and one of my favorite parts of the event. I had to work at 8:00 am the next morning so I left at 12:00 am to make my 45 minute drive home. The others stayed and went through the last maze.

I took some pictures with my iPhone 6s and my small Canon point and shoot camera. I plan on going back next Thursday with my larger DSLR camera and hopefully get some better pictures.

We spent the weekend participating in a family camp, just north of Malibu, with my older son’s Boy Scout Troop.

We got there Friday night, dropped the older boy off with his patrol, and then setup camp for my family.

Saturday morning we had breakfast with the other families, the Boy Scouts plan and prepare their own meals.

After breakfast we had a short geocaching introduction and then went on a hike to find some geocaching locations.

Once the hike was done we had lunch and then made the 5 minute walk down to the beach. The undertow was pretty strong so we kept the younger kids close to the shore and kept a close eye on the older boys. (There is a whole procedure setup in the BSA guidelines for this kind of activity.)

On Sunday we took one last stroll on the beach and then drove the scenic route down PCH to the 10 freeway and home.

The kids got to do archery, shoot BB guns, fish, and go out on rowboats.

On Saturday we had a breakfast bake in the morning, hot dogs for lunch, spaghetti for dinner, and I made triple chocolate cake in the dutch oven for dessert.

Saturday night I built up a campfire and we had the kids do their skits and then make S’mores.

We also got to see some cool spiders.

We went home Sunday morning, unpacked and cleaned up. That afternoon around 3:00 pm one of the Boy Scouts from my older son’s troop came over and we cut some wood down on the table saw and miter saw for his Eagle Project. He is restoring some benches for his church. Unfortunately we were so busy that I forgot to take any pictures.

I saw the movie opening weekend with my 11 and 8 year old boys. They loved it. I enjoyed it and I’m glad that I saw it on the big screen but I can honestly say that the big comic book movies just don’t entertain me like they used to. I don’t know if it is over saturation or if it is just a sign of aging but they just don’t excite me like they used to. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked it, but I didn’t walk out of the theater talking about how good it was. My attitude was basically, yep it was another Marvel movie.

I plan on seeing the next Avengers movie but I’m not nearly as excited about it as my kids are.

On Thursday morning we made the 6 hour drive from my house to Williams, AZ and spent the night there at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel.

On Friday morning we rode the train up to the Grand Canyon and then took a bus tour. We stayed at the Maswik Hotel on the south rim of the canyon that night. I left the wife and kids at the room and walked up to the red line bus and took it out to Mohave Point to watch the sunset.

On Saturday we walked to the nearest bus stop and rode the bus to the Visitor Center. From there we walked along the rim of the canyon to the geology museum. When we were done at the museum we took another bus back to our hotel, picked up our gear, and rode the train back to Williams. We then made the 6 hour drive back and got home around 2:00 am. I did all the driving so I got to sleep in a little on Sunday. We spent most of the day recuperating from the trip and I got out to the shop around 4:00 pm and did some gluing up of the broken tomahawk targets.

Please note that we had an 8 year old, an 11 year old, and my mother in law in the car so the actual drive times varied.